You are looking at what may be the first photograph of the Jazz Age. A stylish young woman sits at a table in the Eden Roc at Cap d'Antibes. Her straw hat obscures her face, so we can't be sure if she is looking at the spectacular view arrayed before her, outside the restaurant. If this were a painting you might think it was too beautiful t
o be true.Nice was a quiet spot on the Cote d'Azur when the newlywed Lartigues set up housekeeping there in 1920. Thanks, in part to these photographs (autochromes, actually), the fashionable world was about to discover the Riviera.
Like the wives of so many famous men, this woman is hidden in plain sight. Recently I finished a biography of the French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) knowing no more about Madeleine Messager than when I started - not even when she was born or when sh
e died.
When Madeleine married Jacques on December 17, 1919, she was a better catch than he was. Her father was Andre Messager, composer, and the director of the Paris Opera. He was just a boy from a successful industrial family, who spent most of the 1920s trying to convince official Paris that he was a painter.
e died.When Madeleine married Jacques on December 17, 1919, she was a better catch than he was. Her father was Andre Messager, composer, and the director of the Paris Opera. He was just a boy from a successful industrial family, who spent most of the 1920s trying to convince official Paris that he was a painter.
Not only did Madeleine surrender her family name, Jacques gave her the nickname of Bibi, and that is the name we know her by.
In pictures taken at the Lartigue home in Rouzat in 1921, Bibi has even become a blonde. This change didn't last but the nickname stuck.
During the twelve years they were married, the couple had two children and Jacques photographed Bibi hundreds of times.
Most critics write as though they were her familiars, but we aren't. Spirited and intelligent she appears, making a viewer - this one, anyway - want to know more. Images like Bibi On The Ile Saint-Honore at Cannes (perched on a precipice under a parasol) and Spring (where she embraces a cherry tree) are carefully planned gems. Whereas the summer beach scene and the long shot of Bibi descending snow covered steps at Megeve appear more relaxed.
These pictures of a charmed life were not published for more than four decades. The marriage ended; they went separate ways. He continued to live a charmed life, skating along like a beetle on top of the water. She made a life - away from the camera.
Most critics write as though they were her familiars, but we aren't. Spirited and intelligent she appears, making a viewer - this one, anyway - want to know more. Images like Bibi On The Ile Saint-Honore at Cannes (perched on a precipice under a parasol) and Spring (where she embraces a cherry tree) are carefully planned gems. Whereas the summer beach scene and the long shot of Bibi descending snow covered steps at Megeve appear more relaxed.
These pictures of a charmed life were not published for more than four decades. The marriage ended; they went separate ways. He continued to live a charmed life, skating along like a beetle on top of the water. She made a life - away from the camera.
The images are taken from the The Autochromes of Jacques-Henri Lartigue, published in 1981 by the Vking Press, edited by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. 
10 comments:
They do look like paintings! Infact when I was looking at them I thought of Sarah Moons work- especially her Biba photos!
what lartigue bio did you read?
great post!
Marvelous finding, as always. Dropping by your blog is like a wonderful class in art with an instructor who is so learned and willing to share her knowledge. This woman, an artist's wife - in plain sight - giving up her name and becoming "no one" ... I wonder if she felt that way or if her life was richer than that. Oh, it would be a great book!
Hello Jane I have discovered your blue lantern, and I will be the new reading one, but with a translator of help, the English language even I it do not dominate well .A many regards from Catalonia, (Spain) Olga
Jicky, autochromes are admired for that painterly quality. A complication is that the color grains move around on the photographic plates and the colors "migrate". Instability has been a problem for the medium, although some contemporary photographers are using it again.
Jeanne, once again the lack of information about a woman who was certainly 'known' in her time is frustrating. There's an old saying: "Love and hate are akin, but indifference has no kin." The Orange Prize for literature was founded for just that reason - (most) men aren't curious enough to read books by women.
Anon, the book is "Jacques-Henri Lartigue: The Invention of an Artist" by Kevin Moore, published by Princeton University Press. Even "The Autochromes of Jacques-Henri Lartigue", where these images came from, a book full of pictures of Bibi, tells very little about her. I had to scrouge for information abotu this woman - even in French.
Olga, I am so happy you found this site. I hope you enjoy it. Your message came through well. Thank you.
Jane - That initial photo of Bibi in the restaurant at Eden Roc is such a romantic image to me - ever since the autochromes book came out I have loved it. You are so right to say that Madeleine has been obscured by Bibi - and that even Bibi is a projection of Lartigue's imagination. But what an imagination he had. His paintings - his life's work, ostensible - are awful. His photos, sublime.
Autochromes make everything beautiful. No wonder the modern sensibility distrusts them. Separating them from the black & white snapshots seemed right. I don't think Lartigue's images completely obscure Madeleine/Bibi or we wouldn't respond to them. Too often, history is written to make marriage a form of human sacrifice for women.
Post a Comment